Home Assignment Goals

• Renew relationships with family and friends.
• Spend time continuing to share our vision for Bible Translation in Africa with churches and supporters. We have already plans to visit churches in Missouri, Texas and Arkansas. If you would like us to come speak at your church, bible study, or have us over for a visit please let us know!
• Complete our adoption and bring back our child from Taiwan.
• Jonathan will be continuing much of his finance work for the Uganda/Tanzania branch remotely from home.
• Rachel is planning to volunteer in her home church in Kansas City.
• Jonathan has been able to help many missionaries with their US taxes (they are complicated for missionaries). He is planning to take an income tax course so he can get some formal training in this area and can develop this area of ministry.
• Raise more prayer and financial support. We have to be back at 100% support before Wycliffe will release us to return to Tanzania.
• On our way back to Africa we plan to spend time with our family and friends in England.
• Have a few weeks to rest, debrief with other missionaries and take some vacation.

The Rangi team recently had the opportunity to make audio recordings of the books of Jonah, Ruth, and portions of Mark. These recordings have the potential to reach a larger number of people at one time than the written books of the Bible. They will reach people who cannot see well enough to read, those who are older and find learning to read difficult, as well as very young children.

In preparation for the recording, the Rangi team sat together to discuss which chapters in Mark should be recorded first. With Easter approaching, the team was very interested in recording the crucifixion and resurrection chapters. We decided to read those chapters together to listen for flow issues and to test the translators’ abilities to read aloud. I was following along in my printed copy of Mark when I realized that the translators were not reading their copies, but rather, they were reciting the section completely by memory. This really surprised me. “How have you memorized so much Scripture?” I asked them. They replied, “We have read it so many times when translating it that we have memorized entire sections. It is easier for us to memorize God’s word in our mother-tongue.”

I was so excited to see how the work of translation into their own language has helped the translators hide God’s Word in their hearts!

Dedication of the book of Mark (NLB-HD) from Jonathan Morgan on Vimeo.

We have now been in Dodoma for two months and gradually adjusting to life here. We are making good friends with both Tanzanians and other missionaries so we are pleased that there are other people around that we can be social with.

Jonathan

I am getting settled into my job and I am already doing lots of technical accounting work. I am responsible for the finances of the whole organization in Uganda and Tanzania as well as the local office which is a lot of work but is very fulfilling. One of my first jobs will be to prepare for an audit in September so I am learning a lot about the organization’s finances very quickly!

Rachel

I am beginning to bond well with the Rangi team and I am excited about how things are progressing with the translation. Last week I received my Rangi name from the translators. They named me ‘Mbeyu’ which means seed and is a name for well respected people. Also the seed represents the Word of God that is being planted in people’s hearts through the Rangi translation. Recently, I visited a translation project that is in a village several hours northwest of Dodoma (see attached picture). The Sandawe people live in this village and surrounding area and they speak one of the few click languages in Africa. We both plan to go again, and see more of the translation work that is happening in this area. I have written a story about one of my work experiences with the translators below which I hope will give you an insight into my work.

For prayer

Please give thanks for:
-      We just returned from our annual conference which was very much a blessing for us. – When we left for home, we felt spiritually and physically refreshed and we felt more of a connection with our colleagues serving in Uganda and Tanzania. It was a great opportunity to catch up with friends from language school and to make new friends.
-      Our pets have adjusted well to us, and we are bonding well with them.
-      We are starting to make good friendships in Dodoma.

Please pray for:

-     Our biggest prayer request is for finding a church to attend. None of the options we have are ideal so please continue to pray that God will lead us to where he would like us to attend.
-     Continued strength as we are adjusting to our jobs and to the Tanzanian culture.
-     That we would continue to develop our Swahili skills.
-     For the completion of the translation work on the book of Mark over the next few months.

Thank you to all who have sent us encouraging e-mails over the last few weeks. It is easy to get bogged down with studies, and an encouraging word always brightens our day! Although we are still struggling with occasional tummy bugs, overall our health has improved from the first few weeks here. We have also had some good conversations about God with some of the people visiting the campsite and had opportunities to share the gospel with them.

Here are a couple of stories about our adventures so far in Tanzania…

Recently, we had a lecture from two people from the Masaai tribe which is in Tanzania and Kenya. The Massai people are often tall, thin and like jumping as part of their cultural dancing. We saw a demonstration of one of their dances (see video page). Then, one very strange scene happened which proves the extent of globalization worldwide. You should picture this Masaai warrior dressed in all the traditional clothing (which is basically just a blanket wrapped around his body and his weapons which include a stick, a club and a knife). All of a sudden, we hear a cell/mobile phone ringing, and he reaches into his blanket and pulls it out and starts talking on it!! It was so hilarious, if only we had been quicker and got a picture of it! He’s telling us all about their traditions and keeping their traditions and then his phone rings!

Also, if you remember the hippo that we told you about that lives in the river next to our campsite, we almost got to see him a couple of weeks ago. I’ve written a little dialogue at the bottom of this e-mail of what happened (in Swahili and English), thinking it might bring a smile to your face.

Please give thanks for:
- We are progressing well with our language learning and we are able to comprehend some basic conversations now
- That our teachers were not seriously harmed in their recent car accident
- That we have formed a good relationship with the couple we are sharing a banda (cabin) with

Please would you pray for:
- We would be able to remember more vocabulary
- Our witness to non-Christians visiting the campsite
- We would remain strong in mind, body, and spirit as we continue with our studies
- Our relationships would not be strained living in such close proximity with others
- We would keep focused on our goal of bringing the Bible to Bibleless people groups

Thank you for your prayers and encouragements.

]]> http://www.habariyamorgan.org/2008/04/15/a-visit-from-the-massai/feed/ 0 http://www.habariyamorgan.org/2008/03/01/three-weeks-into-language-school/ http://www.habariyamorgan.org/2008/03/01/three-weeks-into-language-school/#comments Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:15:08 +0000 admin http://www.habariyamorgan.org/?p=5 We hope you enjoyed our first newsletter from Tanzania last month. We have arrived at language school in Iringa and have been studying Swahili for 3 weeks now. Classes are going well, and we are divided up into classes with about 5 people in each class. We are now able to construct basic sentences, and have been trying to practice on our trips to town. At one of the first classes, Rachel told the class “I like to eat a wife”. What she meant to say is “I like to eat bread”! Part of learning a new language is being able to laugh at all the silly mistakes we make! We still have 13 weeks of Swahili lessons left, so we are looking forward to becoming even more proficient in the language.

On our journey to Iringa we drove through a national park. As we were driving, we saw giraffe, elephants, gazelle, and zebra! The language school is held on a campsite with tents and some wooden cabins. We were fortunate to be put in a nice little cabin (called a banda) so we have a little more room to move around. We have attached pictures of the view from our banda and of the dining banda where we eat our meals. On Wednesdays we host a mid-week service in our banda so we try to squeeze 15 people into one small room. It’s cozy and gives real meaning to the phrase ‘close fellowship’! There are a lot of creatures on the campsite including dogs, snakes, guinea fowl, a hippo (although we haven’t seen him yet!), and a lot of geckos including one that lives in our cabin. We decided that since it appears he is here to stay and he does a great job eating mosquitoes, we would name him so we call him Bartholomew (we call him Bart for short).

We are very thankful for the support and encouragement we have felt from you all. We have had many e-mails of encouragement. For those interested in sending us letters or packages, we have put some helpful guidelines on how to do this on our website here.  We have also made some suggestions on the sort things you can send. We are also hoping to post some pictures on our  website soon.

Please give thanks for:
- Safe travels to language school as this was our first road trip in Tanzania
- That we have both just recovered from bouts of illness and are now almost fully fit again
- That we are enjoying our studies and made good friendships with our colleagues

Please would you pray for:
- That we would remain be healthy so that we don’t miss any classes
- That our spiritual lives would continue to be strong
- That our relationships with our colleagues would continue to strengthen and that our team will remain unified
- That we would grasp the language quickly and remember what we have studied

We appreciate you all, and would love to hear how you are doing!